Essay On Hurricane Power Outage

Nearly every hurricane that hits Miami causes a power outage of some size. The outages cause countless obstacles that residents have to deal with when they are already busy dealing with the rest of the hurricane aftermath. This problem can last hours, days, or even weeks. It is important to find a solution to this problem so people can resume their lives after a hurricane strikes. Miami’s hurricane-caused power outages are becoming more common and severe as hurricanes strengthen and become more frequent; this can be solved by better flood protection, the establishment of micro grids across the city, and the use of risk management. The intense weather elements of hurricanes cause power outages for many people in Miami which creates countless

A power outage isn’t just the simple inconvenience that a garage door won’t go up and its dark inside. According to Lights Out, a report that looks at the threats hurricanes pose to the power grid, “lack of electricity following severe weather events can be another and separate disaster, triggering urgent patient evacuations from darkened hospitals, millions of gallons of raw sewage flowing into local waterways as treatment plants go dark, and hours-long lines at the few area service stations able to keep pumps running” (McNamara 1). These are all complications following the original hurricane that make the problem much worse. The compromise of clean drinking water and the loss of life support in a hospital are just two examples, yet they show how devastating a power outage can be especially when it is part of a larger problem. In addition, McNamara explains in the same article that the elderly and disabled may struggle in a power outage due to their need for a life support machine or the need to charge items like electric wheel chairs (1). Also, in a place like Miami, if a hurricane strikes in the summer and power goes out, thousands will be left without air conditioning in the strong heat, a situation that could lead to potential health hazards. Finally, the damage of the power grid equipment can require either lengthy repairs, or complete replacement at a cost of

To start, hurricanes aren’t just a once in a lifetime event for the residents of Miami. That part of the country encounters hurricanes on a regular basis. Based on a report about the deadliest, costliest, and most intense US hurricanes, southeast Florida has been hit by 41 in a span of 150 years, 15 of those being category 3 or above (Blake, et al. 18). That translates to about 1 hurricane every 3.5 years and a major hurricane every 10 years. Miami has consistently encountered hurricanes and that isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Climate change and the rise of sea levels doesn’t help the situation either. In fact, according to McNamara’s Light’s Out report, “in southeastern Florida, sea level rise drives a large increase in the amount of